Emails to customers

Bottle emails customers through the contacts on their customer record. Customers do not need a Bottle account.

Under Customers → Customer → Contacts, normal contacts receive order and delivery messages. Billing contacts receive invoices and overdue reminders. You can add several of either type. Bottle sends each message once per distinct email address. If there are no billing contacts, invoice emails fall back to the normal contacts. The email under Details is the main normal contact. See Customers.

Customer emails can use your business name, logo, colours and sender address. Bottle account emails for office staff and drivers stay Bottle-branded.

Your branding and sender address

Open Business settings → Customer emails, or Bottle Shop → Settings → Customer emails. Both open the same settings. You do not need to enable a shop to brand delivery and invoice emails. Owners, admins and technical users can change these settings. Technical users can also open Customer emails directly from their navigation.

Who your emails come from lists your business and each connected shop on one line, with the name and address customers see and whether it is ready. Press Change beside Your business to set:

• Sender name is the name customers see in their inbox once your Send from address is verified. While Use this branding and sender for delivery and invoice emails too is on, an order from a connected shop with its own Name customers see is signed with that name instead. See More than one shop.
• Send from is the address customers see the email come from. Use an address on a subdomain, such as info@notifications.northgategas.co.uk. See Use a subdomain for customer emails. Leave it blank to send through Bottle with your business name.
• Send replies to is where customers’ replies land once your Send from address is verified. Use a mailbox your team already reads, such as office@northgategas.co.uk. Bottle does not create a mailbox. Until then, or if you leave this blank, we use the contact email in your published shop, or the message’s existing business reply address.
• Use this branding and sender for delivery and invoice emails too includes order confirmations, payment links, delivery updates and invoices. It is on by default. Shop sign-up, password reset and customer invitation emails always use your branding.

Your logo and colours come from your published shop design. Unpublished design changes do not change emails. Without a published shop, emails use your business name and business logo. A small Powered by Bottle line remains at the bottom.

Press Save to apply them immediately. You do not need to publish the shop again. Send me a test email sends a sample to your own Bottle sign-in address.

Choose which emails Bottle sends

All three groups are on by default under Emails Bottle sends automatically. Change them there and press Save:

• Order emails sends order confirmations, payment links and the confirmation after a pay-first order is paid. A payment link email names the order reference, what is on the order and the day it is expected or was delivered, so a customer who paid for an earlier order can see this is not it. Turn it off while another system handles order messages. Bottle still creates the order and any payment link. Send payment link and Send the link again do not email the customer while this is off, so share the link through your existing route instead.
• Delivery updates sends the Driver has left, Delivery window changed, Delivery date changed and Delivery completed messages described below.
• Invoice emails sends new invoices and any overdue reminders enabled under Business settings → Invoices. Bottle still creates invoices, makes their PDFs available and sends their details to connected accounting software while this is off. Send them through your existing route instead. Reminders you send yourself from the invoice list still go while this is off.

Turning a group off also skips messages already waiting to be sent. Skipped messages do not build up and are not sent when you turn the group back on. New messages resume from that point.

The switches work whether you send through Bottle or from a verified custom email domain. Connecting or disconnecting a custom domain changes the sender address, not which emails are on.

The switches apply only to emails from your business to customers. Driver round emails, messages to your own staff, sign-in emails and shop-account invitations are not affected.

Use a subdomain for customer emails

Send customer emails from a subdomain of your business domain, such as notifications.northgategas.co.uk. Your everyday email stays on northgategas.co.uk.

Bottle sends invoices, reminders and delivery updates automatically. Email providers judge each domain by the mail it sends. On a subdomain, these emails build their own record. If a customer marks an invoice as spam, it does not affect the email your staff send from your main domain.

Customers still see your business name in their inbox. Their replies still go to your normal mailbox through Send replies to. The subdomain does not need a mailbox of its own.

If you enter an address on your main domain, such as info@northgategas.co.uk, Bottle suggests a subdomain under Send from. You can still save it.

Connect your email domain

You do not need to connect your shop web domain first. Your shop web domain controls where customers visit your shop. Your email domain controls the address your emails come from. They are set up separately, even if they use the same domain.

Use an address on a domain you own, such as info@notifications.northgategas.co.uk. You do not need to create the subdomain anywhere first. Adding the DNS records below is enough. You cannot verify an address on a shared domain such as gmail.com.

There are two DNS steps: first prove you own the domain, then authorise Bottle to send emails from it. All the records go on the subdomain in your Send from address, not on your main domain. The ownership record’s name is shown in full, such as _bottle-email.notifications.northgategas.co.uk. The email authentication records may be shown without your main domain, with names ending in .notifications.

1. Press Change beside Your business, enter the address in Send from and press Save.
2. Under Your email domains, copy the TXT record into your domain provider’s DNS settings. This proves you own the domain. It does not start sending yet.
3. Once ownership is confirmed and Bottle’s custom email service is connected, Bottle shows the email authentication records. Add each record with the type, name, value and priority shown.
4. Bottle checks these records automatically. Once all checks pass, the status changes to Ready to send and customer emails start coming from your address. You can close the settings while it checks.

Some DNS providers want only the part before your main domain in the Name field. For _bottle-email.notifications.northgategas.co.uk, that would be _bottle-email.notifications. A name that already ends in .notifications is in that form, so enter it as shown. If your provider wants full names, add .northgategas.co.uk to the end. Use the full value exactly as Bottle shows it.

Keep your existing inbox records. The new records only let Bottle send from the subdomain. They do not move your mailbox, change your main domain’s email or change your shop’s web address. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours. Check now checks the current records immediately, but you do not need to keep pressing it.

Until verification finishes, emails keep your logo and colours and are sent through Bottle with your business name. Your Sender name and Send replies to are not used until then, so nothing goes out half set up. Bottle rechecks connected domains automatically. If a record goes missing, or the provider rejects your sender, emails return to Bottle’s sender while it checks again.

To change the part before the @, such as from invoices@ to info@, save the new address. The domain stays verified. To use another domain, save an address on it and add that domain’s DNS records. Emails go through Bottle until the new domain is verified. To go back to sending through Bottle, clear Send from and save. Your branding, inbox and shop address stay unchanged.

Your email domains lists each domain once, even when your business and a shop both send from it, and says which of them use it. A verified domain shows one line. A domain still being set up shows its records and Check now.

Send a shop’s emails from its own address

If you have connected WooCommerce or Shopify shops, each one has its own line under Who your emails come from. By default a shop’s emails use your business sender. To give a shop its own:

1. Press Change beside the shop.
2. Optionally fill in Name customers see. Leave it blank to use your business’s sender name.
3. Under Send from, choose This shop’s own address and enter it, such as orders@notifications.surreybeergas.co.uk. Optionally enter Send replies to. Leave it blank to use your business’s reply address.
4. Press Save.

An address on a domain you have already verified, such as surrey@notifications.northgategas.co.uk, works straight away. A new domain appears under Your email domains with its DNS records. Add them as described in Connect your email domain.

The shop’s address is used for order confirmations and delivery updates on that shop’s orders, once it is verified. Until then, they come from your business address. Invoices always come from your business address, because one invoice can cover orders from more than one shop. The name on the shop’s emails is its Name customers see. See More than one shop.

To go back to the business address, press Change beside the shop, choose Your business sender and press Save.

When the email service is not connected

If you see “Bottle’s custom email service is not connected yet”, Bottle has not connected the service needed to send from your domain. This is not a problem with your shop domain or something you can fix in your DNS settings.

You can still:

• Enter your sender address under Change beside Your business, and press Save.
• Add the TXT ownership record shown in the form to your domain’s DNS settings.
• Save your sender name, reply address and branding options.

Your address and settings stay saved. Sending from your address cannot start until Bottle’s service is connected and the email authentication records pass verification. Once the service is connected, Bottle resumes checking automatically. Return to Customer emails to add the authentication records when they appear.

If your domain shows Check needed and “Bottle can’t set up your email domain yet”, the problem is on Bottle’s side, not in your DNS settings. You can still add the TXT ownership record. Customer emails keep going out from Bottle with your business name. Bottle checks again every hour, and the message clears once your domain can be set up.

You do not need to connect your shop web domain to clear this notice. While you wait, customer emails keep using Bottle’s sender with your branding.

1. Order confirmation

With Order emails on, every normal contact receives a confirmation when a pay-later or cash-on-delivery order is created in the office. It includes the products, expected delivery dates, payment method, tracking reference and tracking link.

An order taken as Paid outside Bottle gets the same confirmation. Its payment line reads “Arranged directly with us”, and no payment email follows.

Payment-link orders follow the payment steps below instead.

2. Payment link

With Order emails on, normal contacts receive the payment email when a payment-link order is created. It shows the total including VAT and a button to pay through your connected payment provider.

Use Send the link again on the order to resend it.

3. Payment received

With Order emails on, Bottle sends the confirmation and tracking reference after a pay-first order is marked paid. Repeated payment notifications do not send duplicate confirmations.

Stripe sends the card receipt separately. Bottle provides the invoice. See Invoices.

For paid orders imported from WooCommerce or Shopify, Bottle sends the delivery confirmation and tracking details when an email address was supplied. The external shop remains responsible for the payment receipt and invoice; Bottle does not send a second bill.

4. Driver has left

With Delivery updates on, every normal contact receives a delivery window and a link to update their delivery instructions when the driver selects I have set off. Bottle uses the time the driver actually set off, not the departure time that was planned earlier. If the phone was temporarily offline, it uses the time recorded by the app when the driver pressed the button.

The window is two hours unless you change it. Set the length for the business in Business settings → Working hours, on the Delivery window line. Choose 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8 hours. The same dialog lists every driver, so you can give any of them a different length and see who differs from the business. Each driver’s length is also on their settings in Fleet → Drivers. One round can have its own length too, set from Start on the round while it is being planned. A round’s own length comes first, then the driver’s, then the business’s. The window is centred on the driver’s estimate, so a 4-hour window for an 11:00 estimate runs from 09:00 to 13:00.

The update is sent once per stop, even if the driver presses the departure button again.

Send to driver does not email customers. It only makes the round available to the driver and notifies that driver.

5. Delivery window changed

While the round is out, the driver app reports its position and recalculates every remaining arrival estimate roughly every five minutes. This needs precise location and a connection. Traffic, a late departure, a long stop and a driver changing the stop order therefore move all later estimates too.

Bottle does not send an email for every small movement. It compares the new estimate with the window that customer was last sent. An estimate inside the window, even at the very end of it, sends nothing. Bottle emails only when the estimate is more than 15 minutes outside the window. For a 09:00 to 11:00 window, an estimate of 11:15 sends nothing and 11:16 sends an update.

The email says whether the delivery is running late or early, gives the new window and the old one, and lists what is on the vehicle. A late window starts no earlier than the old one ended, so a customer due 09:00 to 11:00 who is now expected at 11:30 is told 11:00 to 12:30. Bottle saves the new window as the one to compare against next.

6. Delivery date changed

If a stop is removed because the driver cannot reach it in time, the customer receives the new delivery date.

Other failed deliveries do not send this rescheduling email automatically. The office decides what happens next.

7. Delivery completed

After the driver saves an individual stop as delivered, Bottle emails the delivered quantities, the order reference, any empties collected, anything still outstanding, anything the customer turned away, and the signature or delivery photograph. It does not wait for the whole round to finish. This also goes out if you marked the order delivered first and the driver’s phone catches up later. Failed deliveries and orders with a delivery partner do not receive a delivered email.

8. Invoice

With Invoice emails on, Bottle emails every billing contact according to the customer’s invoice frequency. If no billing contact is saved, it uses the normal contacts. Scheduled invoices can include pay-later deliveries, cylinder rent and deposit credits.

The email includes the PDF, total, payment deadline and available payment methods. See Invoices. When the customer owes on two or more invoices they can pay by card, it also has a Pay all your invoices at once section with a link to pay them all in one card payment. See Paying several invoices at once.

What is never sent

Bottle does not send marketing or review requests as part of the order workflow. Overdue-invoice reminders are optional and controlled on the Reminders line in Business settings → Invoices. Automatic reminders send only while Invoice emails is also on. Reminders you send yourself from the invoice list go either way.

The email log

Open Email log from your user menu to see business emails sent in the last year. Search by recipient or subject, or filter failed attempts.

Open an email to see its HTML or plain-text content. Attachments are listed; invoice PDFs can also be downloaded from the invoice.

Failed sends are retried automatically and each attempt is recorded. Personal account emails, such as password resets, are not included.

Owners and admins can access the log. Entries are removed after one year.